Page 19 of Dealing With Drak

When her eyes go round, taking in the place around us, I frown.

“Is this not the right location?”

“No,” she replies with a hollow voice. “This is it.”

I do not think my Mean One is happy to be home.

7

Anna

This place hardly smells like a farm anymore. Both the offensive animal stink that typically comes with raising cattle and the bright scent of fresh plants growing in the massive garden are hardly noticeable.

Logically, I understand why. Before they brought supplies to the sorority house, my brothers and our father freed all of the cattle and left the plants behind to die. I don’t know how far the cows, pigs, goats, and sheep got before coming to their untimely deaths, but I doubt many of them are still roaming around. It’s been almost a year since the breakout, and farm animals who are bred to rely on humans aren’t always the best at fending for themselves.

The plants are all victims of the sun and a lack of watering. I can still see the withered rows of what were once flourishing food sources. Cucumbers turned into piles of dead vines and leaves, the same with the tomatoes and beans. It’s just all dead.

Leaving my bag on the ship, I check my belt and my boots to make sure I have everything I need for the first scan of the area. Drak and I plan to camp out here tonight, knowing that moving quickly could be counter productive at this point. What if we leave an area too fast, and my brothers come wandering in it the next day? We need to be vigilant about this.

Drak doesn’t need to sleep daily, but I do. We’ll take shelter in the main house tonight unless Drak doesn’t sense that it’s safe. Worst case, we just stay in the invisible ship overnight. There’s enough space for me to curl up and get a few hours of rest in. But we’ve got hours before we need to consider my sleeping arrangements.

“Are you going to hide it?” I ask, nodding to the spaceship.

Drak nods, pulling out the small remote and clicking it. Instantly, the hunk of metal disappears. “Where shall we start our search, Mean One?”

Ignoring his insistence on that nickname, I chew on my lip as I think about the best place to begin. Chances are, they’re not here. But if they did come back at any point, Caleb may have been smart enough to leave a note, or a clue, or something that could help us. He’d leave it where our father wouldn’t think to look.

“The house,” I say, pointing to the large white structure a short walk away.

The wrap-around porch still looks intact, so hopefully, squatters haven’t been here, using it like some kind of free sanctuary. If some strangers messed up my chances of finding my family by touching anything in there, I might lose my mind.

“Lead the way, fierce hunter,” he insists, smiling.

When Drak would call me stuff like that before it made me want to strangle him. He’d call me things like a huntress or a warrior and it just felt like he was teasing me, taunting me about how I’d never be as strong or skilled as him. Fortunately, I learned pretty quickly that while Drak is playful, he’s not mean. He doesn’t consider himself above me. No, he thinks I’m interesting.

Carefully, we begin to walk through the uncut grass. I wouldn’t put it past my father to lay out traps for zombies or even unwelcome visitors. If I step into a bear trap, I’ll actually shoot my father if he’s still alive. Drak wouldn’t let the thing kill me, using his advanced machinery to heal my wounds better than any human medical center might, but he wouldn’t be able to erase that initial pain.

“Watch your step,” I remind him cautiously.

We already discussed the possibility of dangerous traps lying in wait for us. But, honestly? I think the prospect of besting human traps only added to his excitement about coming here. Drak loves a challenge, after all.

“I am watching,” he replies reassuringly. “I do not see any metal in the grass along our expected path, but I will continue to watch carefully.”

“You can predict our path?” I ask.

“Yes,” he says proudly. “I know where your feet are leading us.”

Learning a new Aprixian ability is an everyday sort of thing with Drak. But essentially, they have fucking superpowers. All of their senses are heightened. They’re stronger, faster, smarter, and they have almost analytical brains. It’s like they see things that aren’t there. Apparently, like marking out paths with only deductive reasoning skills.

“And you don’t think there are any traps where we’re walking?”

“I do not,” he agrees. “There are no dents in the grass patterns ahead.”

See? Superpowers.

“I’m still going to walk slow,” I warn. It’s not that I don’t trust him; mostly, I don’t trust myself. I’m not sure how I’ll react to seeing the house and whatever state it may be in.

Drak chuckles lightly. “I am in no rush, An-nana.”

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